Band 1
Provided by Lily Mottahedan
Lily has appeared in a number of reported and published cases both as the lead counsel and as junior to a KC. Such cases include:
• Vince v Vince (Re Transparency) [2024] EWFC 406 (before Mr Justice Cusworth) (High Court), led by Richard Todd KC in an application concerning the media’s rights to documents in financial remedy proceedings.
• Vince v Vince [2024] EWFC 389 (before Mr Justice Cusworth) (High Court), led by Richard Todd KC in a highly publicised financial remedy matter concerning the extent to which there should be a departure from equality in the Husband’s favour on account of pre-marital endeavour in a well-known British green energy business.
• MN v AN [2023] EWHC 613 (Fam) (High Court), led by Deborah Bangay KC in the wife’s challenge to a prenuptial agreement on the grounds of duress and needs.
• SA v FA [2022] EWFC 115 (before HHJ Hess) where she sought a stay of divorce and financial remedy proceedings in England and Wales on forum non conveniens grounds in favour of proceedings in the Abu Dhabi Family court for Non-Muslims and was successful.
• SC v TC [2022] EWFC 67 (before HHJ Hess) where she successfully set-aside a post-nuptial agreement on the grounds of undue influence and failure to meet needs on behalf of a vulnerable client who had lost litigation capacity during the proceedings.
• AG v VG [2020] EWHC 1847 (Fam) (High Court), led by Deborah Bangay KC, defending the Wife in the Husband’s application for disclosure of her previous solicitor’s files on the grounds that she had waived legal professional privilege in her pleadings.
• Waggott v Waggott [2018] EWCA Civ 727 (Court of Appeal), led by Nigel Dyer KC in the Husband’s successful resistance to the Wife’s appeal and his cross-appeal in a landmark financial remedy case concerning spousal maintenance, capitalisation, clean breaks and section 28(1) bars.
• Quan v Bray and Others [2017] EWCA Civ 405 (Court of Appeal), led by Richard Todd KC in the Wife’s appeal of the first instance decision.
• Quan v Bray and others [2015] EWCA Civ 1253 (Court of Appeal), led by Richard Todd KC in the Wife’s successful application for permission to appeal.
• Quan v Bray and others [2014] EWCA 3340 (Fam) (High Court), led by Richard Todd KC, a four-week preliminary issue hearing concerning whether an offshore trust is post-nuptial settlement and/or a resource pursuant to the Thomas v Thomas line of cases.
• B v B [2014] EWHC 4857 (Fam) (High Court), without a leader, in a two day contested jurisdiction dispute concerning jurisdiction under Articles 3 to 7 of the EU Maintenance Regulation 2009 in which she was successful.
Financial remedies
Financial remedies after an overseas divorce (Part III)
Jurisdiction (including under the EU Maintenance Regulation 2009 and the Hague Convention 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance)
Forum non conveniens
Recognition of foreign marriages and divorces
Declarations as to marital status
Non-marriage and nullity
Injunctions
Enforcement (including the enforcement of international orders)
Marital agreements (prenuptial and postnuptial agreements and European marital property regime agreements)
Financial provision for children under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989
Private law children matters (residence and contact)
Lily was called to the Bar in 2011 and has been a tenant at 1 Hare Court since 2013. She is a leading senior junior barrister with an extensive financial remedies practice.
She was named Junior Barrister of the Year in the Chambers UK Bar awards in 2023 having been shortlisted once before in 2019.
Her practice encompasses all areas of private family law, including but not limited to financial remedies, financial remedies after an overseas divorce (Part III), financial provision for unmarried parents (Schedule 1), jurisdiction and forum non conveniens disputes, applications for recognition of overseas divorces, cases concerning non-marriage and nullity, domestic and international enforcement and marital agreements.
She was highly commended as International Family Lawyer of the Year in the 2023 LexisNexis Family Law Awards following the landmark case of SA v FA [2022] EWFC 115 in which she successfully argued for a stay of an English divorce petition in favour of proceedings issued by her client in Abu Dhabi.
She is a recognised leader at the Bar in cross-border disputes (i.e. jurisdiction and/or forum disputes) and particularly sought after in Anglo-French matters given her fluency in French following her many years as a student at the Lycée Francais in London. She is a fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, a worldwide association of practicing lawyers recognised as the most skilled and experienced family law specialists practicing in their country.
She is sought after in cases involving marital agreements following her success in SC v TC [2022] EWFC 67 in which she successfully challenged a marital agreement on the basis that it had been obtained by exploiting a vulnerable person and which was in any event found to be unfair.
She has acted in cases involving European Marriage contracts (with which she is very familiar) as well as in cases involving bespoke American or English prenuptial agreements. She has experience acting for the spouse seeking to uphold the agreement and for the spouse seeking to challenge the agreement.
She is a go-to in cases involving major art collections given her Diploma in Art Profession Law and Ethics and in-depth knowledge of the contemporary art market. She has acted for collectors and spouses of collectors.
As a former investment banker in the Mergers and Acquisitions team of Merrill Lynch in London, she brings a commercial edge to all of her financial remedy matters. She is adept at dealing with complex company and trust structures in this jurisdiction and overseas and has dealt with many such cases working as a team with her solicitors and occasionally specialist trust or company counsel.
Lily also has a growing international reputation. She has been a shadow counsel on financial remedy cases overseas, to include in the Bahamas and Isle of Man, and accepts instructions from overseas lawyers in Europe and further afield (most recently Singapore, Switzerland and France), to advise on issues of English law.
In addition to her practice as a barrister, Lily sits as a private FDR Judge.
Lily was called to the Bar in 2011.
She was named Family Law Junior Barrister of the Year at the Chambers and Partners UK Bar Awards 2023 and was runner-up in the category of International Family Lawyer of the Year at the LexisNexis Family Law Awards 2023.
Gray’s Inn
FLBA
As well as lecturing extensively at legal conferences in England and abroad and in-house at solicitors firms, Lily has written a number of articles and contributed to academic books:
• When is a divorce jurisdiction, a forum non conveniens? Stay applications in England and Wales, International Family Law Journal, December 2024.
• Hemain Injunctions: How to get them and when not to resist them, Financial Remedies Journal, November 2024.
• Author of chapter on Declarations of marital status in the current edition of Rayden & Jackson on Divorce and Family Matters.
• Co-author of the chapter on The recognition of overseas divorces in the current edition of Rayden & Jackson on Divorce and Family Matters.
• Co-author of Bankers’ Bonuses – how the divorce capital of the world treats the rewards reaped from the financial capital of Europe in Family Law Week, 2014.
• Author of Asaad v Kurter: The latest round in ‘non-marriage’ cases – is the tide turning? in Family Law Week, 2014.
Education
• Diploma in Art Profession Law and Ethics (Distinction), Institute of Art and Law
• Bar Professional Training Course, City (Outstanding)
• Graduate Diploma in Law, The College of Law (Distinction)
• BA (Hons) History, Christ Church, Oxford University (First Class)
• Charterhouse
• Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle
Scholarships and awards
• Winner, Junior Barrister of the Year, Chambers & Partners UK Bar Awards (2023)
• Highly Commended, International Family Lawyer of the Year (2023)
• Shortlisted Junior Barrister of the Year, Chambers & Partners UK Bar Awards (2019)
• Shortlisted Junior Barrister of the Year, LexisNexis Family Law Awards (2018)
• Management Today 35 women under 35 (2016) (also featured in the Times newspaper)
• Atkin Scholarship (for pupils of “exceptional merit”), Gray’s Inn (2012)
• Prince of Wales Scholarship, Gray’s Inn (2011)
• Freshminds One to Watch (the UK’s top 100 peer nominated graduates) (2008)
• College Prize, Christ Church, Oxford University (2008)
French; Persian; English
Family Law Junior Barrister of the Year
Chambers
2023
International Family Lawyer of the Year - Runner up
Lexis Nexis Family Law Awards
2023
Provided by Chambers
Lily Mottahedan specialises in technical financial remedy issues, including those with trust and jurisdiction complications. She has additional expertise in declaration of marital status matters and is a fluent French speaker. Her expertise also encompasses Part III claims and Schedule 1 applications.
Provided by Chambers
Clients like her for her direct but easy manner, her ability to find the answer quickly and her capacity for being on top of the detail.
One of the leading cross-border barristers in this field and a go-to for jurisdiction issues.
Lily is a class act. She is an expert on jurisdiction and brilliant with clients.
Lily is fast developing a reputation as the go-to junior for international work.
Clients like her for her direct but easy manner, her ability to find the answer quickly and her capacity for being on top of the detail.
One of the leading cross-border barristers in this field and a go-to for jurisdiction issues.
Lily is a class act. She is an expert on jurisdiction and brilliant with clients.
Lily is fast developing a reputation as the go-to junior for international work.
Provided by 1 Hare Court
Family Offices and High Net Worth